1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor (“TFT”) array and a method of manufacturing the TFT array
2. Description of Related Art
An active matrix display device, such as a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) device or an organic light emitting diode (“OLED”), includes a plurality of pixels which are arranged in a matrix form. Each pixel includes an electric field generating electrode and a switching element.
The switching element uses a TFT having a gate electrode, a drain electrode, and a source electrode. A gate signal is applied to the gate electrode of the TFT. The TFT then supplies a data signal to a source electrode which supplies a signal to the electric field generating electrode in response to the gate signal applied to the gate electrode.
The TFT array includes a gate line and a data line, which supply signals to the TFT. Accordingly, the TFT array comprises a substrate on which the TFT and the gate and data lines are formed.
The TFT array has a layered structure in which conductive layers and insulating layers are stacked. The TFT array having such a layered structure is manufactured by a plurality of photolithographic and etching processes. Since these processes are expensive and time consuming, the manufacturing cost of the TFT array is high. Further, since these processes include at least the steps of thin film deposition, ashing, photoresist coating, exposure, developing, etching, and photoresist stripping, and other like steps as would be known to a person of ordinary skill in the art, there is significant risk that defects in the TFT array may occur during such steps. Therefore, it is advantageous to reduce the number of such steps in the photolithographic and etching processes.